Suggested Citation: Jung, B.C. (2016 - 2023). Betty C. Jung's 2017 Public Health Blog (January - June).
Web document: https://www.bettycjung.net/Blog2017b.htm
According to 4/16/2015's "Use of E-Cigarettes Rises Sharply Among Teenagers,"
"High-School Tobacco Use
Among high school students, e-cigarette use is growing rapidly, while the use of more traditional forms of tobacco, like cigarettes and cigars, is declining.
Use of the devices among middle- and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to federal data released on Thursday, bringing the share of high school students who use them to 13 percent more than smoke traditional cigarettes. The sharp rise, together with a substantial increase in the use of hookah pipes, led to 400,000 additional young people using a tobacco product in 2014, the first increase in years, though researchers pointed out it fell within the margin of error. About a quarter of all high school students and 8 percent of middle school students 4.6 million young people altogether used tobacco in some form last year.
In interviews, teenagers said that e-cigarettes had become almost as common at school as laptops, a change from several years ago, when few had seen the gadgets. But opinions were mixed on why they had caught on. A significant share said they were using the devices to quit smoking cigarettes or marijuana, while others said they had never smoked but liked being part of the trend and enjoyed the taste two favorite flavors were Sweet Tart and Unicorn Puke, which one student described as “every flavor Skittle compressed into one.
The rise of e-cigarettes, which was captured in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual youth tobacco survey of about 20,000 schoolchildren, prompted an outcry from anti-tobacco advocates. They warned that e-cigarettes were undoing years of progress among the country's most vulnerable citizens by making the act of puffing on a tobacco product normal again, and by introducing nicotine, an addictive substance, to a broad population of teenagers.
This is a really bad thing, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., who noted that research had found that nicotine harms the developing brain. This is another generation being hooked by the tobacco industry. It makes me angry.
But the change had a bright side.. The decline in cigarette use among teenagers accelerated substantially from 2013 to 2014, dropping by 25 percent, the fastest pace in years. The pattern seemed to go against the dire predictions of anti-tobacco advocates that e-cigarettes would become a gateway to cigarettes among youth, and suggested that the devices might actually be helping, not hurting. The pattern resembled those in Sweden and Norway, where a rise in the use of snus, a smokeless tobacco product, was followed by a sharp decline in cigarette use."
According to the April 4, 2014 MMWR Report, "Calls to Poison Centers for Exposures to Electronic Cigarettes United States, September 2010-February 2014"
Electronic nicotine delivery devices such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are battery-powered devices that deliver nicotine, flavorings (e.g., fruit, mint, and chocolate), and other chemicals via an inhaled aerosol. E-cigarettes that are marketed without a therapeutic claim by the product manufacturer are currently not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (1).* In many states, there are no restrictions on the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. Although e-cigarette use is increasing among U.S. adolescents and adults (2,3), its overall impact on public health remains unclear. One area of concern is the potential of e-cigarettes to cause acute nicotine toxicity (4)."
Given the rapid increase in e-cigarette-related exposures, of which 51.1% were among young children, developing strategies to monitor and prevent future poisonings is critical. Health-care providers; the public health community; e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors, sellers, and marketers; and the public should be aware that e-cigarettes have the potential to cause acute adverse health effects and represent an emerging public health concern.
June 22, 2017 - Most Common Combinations of Tobacco Products among Youth Multiple-Product Users
Wear Blue Day is "To raise awareness and money for education about men's need to seek regular checkups, or testicular cancer education, prostate cancer education, or other health issues that affect men. (Cardiovascular disease, skin cancer, lung cancer, diabetes, gout, and more.)" http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/wearblue/
June 15, 2017 - June 15th was World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
June 11, 2017 - June 11-18, 2017 is Men's Health Month
Cheat Sheet for Men's Cancer Screenings and Good Health
Graphic source: http://blogs.cdc.gov/cancer/2016/06/13/mens-cancer-screening-cheat-sheet/
Make sure you stay around to watch your kids grow up. Besides eating healthy and exercising daily, make sure your health is in tip-top shape. Make the appointment and get screened. Man up and wear the gown!
Six factors measured by age 50 were excellent predictors of those who would be in the "happy-well" group--the top quartile of the Harvard men--at age 80: a stable marriage, a mature adaptive style, no smoking, little use of alcohol, regular exercise, and maintenance of normal weight. At age 50, 106 of the men had five or six of these factors going for them, and at 80, half of this group were among the happy-well. Only eight fell into the "sad-sick" category, the bottom quarter of life outcomes. In contrast, of 66 men who had only one to three factors at age 50, not a single one was rated happy-well at 80. In addition, men with three or fewer factors, though still in good physical health at 50, were three times as likely to be dead 30 years later as those with four or more.
To age well physically, the single most important choice was to avoid heavy smoking before age 50, or to quit at a young age. However, alcohol abuse, which Vaillant has also studied extensively (see "Deep Cravings," March-April 2000, page 60), is an especially pernicious influence that not only damages the body but, as he says, "takes you in precisely the opposite direction from maturity. Alcohol is a cause, rather than a result, of life's problems. Very few bad marriages [in the study] led to alcoholism, but in many cases a man developed an alcohol problem and had his marriage fall apart." The data on "social supports"--the quality and strength of relationships, including marriage, family, friends, and community involvements--indicated that "...the etiology of social supports and physical health are often quite different," Vaillant writes. "Only alcohol abuse destroys both health and happiness."
"National Women's Health Week is an observance led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health. The goal is to empower women to make their health a priority. National Women's Health Week also serves as a time to help women understand what it means to be well.
What does it mean to be a well woman?
It's a state of mind. It's being as healthy as you can be. And, most importantly, it's about taking steps to improve your physical and mental health:
Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings.
Get active.
Eat healthy.
Pay attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress.
Avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, texting while driving, and not wearing a seatbelt or bicycle helmet."
Happy Mother's Day to all women who believe in the power of nurturing! On this day, take a moment to reflect on how important it is to take care of ourselves so we can continue to nurture those we love!
May 13, 2017 - May 14 - 20, 2017 is National Prevention Week
While on the topic of women taking care of themselves, here is a "Pregnancy and Vaccination Pocket Guide" developed by the Minnesota Department of Health. It's always best to keep up with vaccines and get them at the appropriate time. However, exposure to potential pathogens may warrant getting some vaccines while pregnant. Important to keep in mind that some may be contraindicated. Check with your health care provider.
Use myhealthfinder's widget to get a quick list of what they need to do for stay healthy. Just type in your age and gender and click on "Get started." It's that simple.
Also, check out Womenshealth.gov's Screening Tests for a comprehensive listing of screening tests you should be getting to stay healthy. The table is organized according to screening test and age.
You can print out a pdf of the Screening Test Table that you can post on the wall, or refrigerator to remind you of what you need to do.
For more information, see Women's Health Index I have 5 webpages devoted to women's health issues.
May 7, 2017 - May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month!
April 11, 2017 - Public Health Expertise Network of Mentors (PHENOM)
Are you looking for a challenging career? Then join a diverse group of public health professionals who work all over the world, protecting mankind from itself and others and championing the beauty and the gift of Nature that is our environment.
Who are public health professionals?
We are health communicators and educators spreading the word about how to live well and long;
We are epidemiologists studying disease while developing strategies to prevent its spread;
We are sanitarians ensuring that our food and water will not make us sick;
We are health care providers working to ensure that everyone can get the preventive services needed to stay healthy, and that the health services provided meet the standards of medical care;
We are policy makers advocating for and developing laws to protect the Public good;
We are disaster preparedness experts supporting the important work of first responders;
We are professors teaching future practitioners the basic principles needed to develop effective interventions that are evidence-based;
We work at all levels of government, and in any organization that share our vision of Public Health; and
We are grass roots advocates and coalition builders interested in empowering communities short on resources;
But, most of all, we collaborate with anyone and everyone to get the work done;
And, we do our best work totally unnoticed, because when the work doesn't get done, you will know it.
Yes, we are all these things and more! Checkout our online directory of 70 Public Health Professionals.
The Public Health Expertise Network of Mentors (PHENOM) has been around for over 20 years. Contact anyone of these professionals listed and learn more about what they do and what you can do if you join us, as we all work the field of Public Health!
April 10, 2017 - April 10th is National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day
April 7, 2017 - April 7 is World Health Day - Focus on Depression
The first full week of April has been declared National Public Health Week (NPHW) since 1995. It's nice to have one week devoted to celebrating the importance of Public Health. For more information, see The Basics of Public Health and Public Health Practice
March 31, 2017 - Warming Expected to Continue into the Foreseeable Future
February 8, 2017 - Annual E-mail Statistics, Part 3
Welcome back to a look at my E-mail statistics! Here is another way of looking at the total of E-mails I have to deal with on a daily basis. The statistics of the total number of E-mails in the February 2, 2017 posting doesn't tell the whole story.
For all of 2016 I tried really hard to get off as many mailing lists as I could, many of which I never signed up for. It is apparent that companies are selling their E-mail lists to others. It's so annoying. But, I did make a dent so that in 2016 I was averaging 10 less E-mails on daily basis than what I was getting in 2012!
Another welcome trend is that the percentage of spam E-mails is now down to 31%, from a high of 49% in 2014! Over the years I have discovered that with a spam filter in place I can just delete everything that ends up in the spam inbox. So cathartic when I press "delete." One can only imagine how much paper would be wasted if all this was snail mail.
February 7, 2017 - February 7th is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
February 6, 2017 - Annual E-mail Statistics, Part 2
Welcome to a look at my E-mail statistics! Since I now have several years of E-mail totals, it is always fun to do some trend analyses.
Here is a line chart of the total number of E-mails I got on an annual basis. The good news is I am getting less spam these days, and have actually got less E-mails in 2016 than I did in 2012, which I started tracking!
February 5, 2017 - Annual E-mail Statistics, Part 1
Welcome to a look at my E-mail statistics! Since 2012, I have been diligent about keeping track of how many E-mails I get on a daily basis.
I started doing this because I tell people that I am constantly inundated with E-mails. I would say that I get hundreds. And, then people would say that nobody gets hundreds.
So, like the epidemiologist that I am (among other things), I decided that I will track the number of E-mails I get and then analyze the results.
Here is a bar chart of the total number of E-mails I got in 2016, per month. The monthly totals are categorized as either regular E-mail and Spam. For 2016, I got 104,277! Yes, indeed, I do get hundreds of E-mails a day!
It is hard to believe that it has been 16 years since I published the first webpages that turned into this Web site. Many thanks to the thousands of visitors who contributed millions of hits during the past 15 years, and for all the nice comments along the way. I will continue to strive to make this Web site a worthwhile place to spend your time and find credible public health and health information. Thank you so much!
October 17, 2014 - October is Health Literacy Month
For Health Literacy Month, the Healthliteracymonth.org is accepting stories from any person who or organization that addresses health literacy in their work. There is a listing of those who have submitted their stories.
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